Strong Wii ‘Momentum,’ Supplies

Nintendo of America Still Mum on 3DS Technical Details

June 18, 2010 by Jeff Berman|Top News

LOS ANGELES -- Nintendo of America (NOA) Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Cammie Dunaway wouldn’t confirm at E3 if the coming Nintendo 3DS handheld system uses stereogram technology as Namco Bandai said (CED June 17 p3), or whether Sharp is supplying the panels and parallax barrier 3D technology as an informed source told Consumer Electronics Daily early this year (CED March 25 p1). Providing that information “doesn’t necessarily help sell more,” she said with a laugh.

"I don’t know” if Nintendo will provide any technical details at the Tokyo Game Show, Sept. 16-19, either, Dunaway said. “There’s no plans right now” to provide such details in general, an NOA spokesman said. Asked whether 3D movies for the 3DS (CED June 16 p2) will be available via download or through removable media, Dunaway said “we have not announced what the content distribution model will be.” Dunaway declined to comment on 3DS pricing, but said “I can guarantee you that it’s going to cost less than going out and buying a 3D compatible television screen and buying a bunch of glasses."

Academy of Arts and Sciences President Joseph Olin predicted that Nintendo will at least give 3DS pricing and a ship date for the Japanese market at the Tokyo Game Show. “Pricing will be a big determinant” for how well the 3DS sells, he said. “If it’s priced competitively, in line with their other handheld systems it will have to be successful; if it’s priced at a point where it’s comparable to a [home] console then it makes it more difficult for the consumer” to buy it, he said. “But then again, people said that no one would spend this much money” on an iPad, he said.

NOA is seeing “strong momentum” on the Wii console, Dunaway said. “We've seen a really good response to the addition of the black” Wii console SKU last month, she said. Before that, only a white model was available. “There’s a lot of consumers who just like the look of black in their living room,” Dunaway said. But “more importantly than the new color is the addition of” the Nintendo game Wii Sports Resort and the MotionPlus accessory with each Wii console, she said. For the same $199, “you're not just getting one … piece of software, you're getting an additional [game] -- $50 value -- as well as the MotionPlus,” she said. Wii consoles had already included the game Wii Sports, and that title continues to be bundled with each Wii sold in the U.S. As always, “software sells hardware” and sales have been strong for the recent Nintendo Wii game Super Mario Galaxy 2, Dunaway said. The game has sold nearly 900,000 copies in the U.S. since its May 23 release, she said.

Wii sales had been down from 2009 for much of the first half of this year. Dunaway didn’t say how much of a boost in sales the console saw in May from the release of the new SKU and addition of the second game and MotionPlus, and there’s no May U.S. data available yet. That’s expected to be released by NPD “later this month, so we don’t have any numbers,” Dunaway said. “We are back in good inventory position” on Wii hardware also, Dunaway said. Shortages played at least some role in the downturn in sales the console saw early this year when compared to 2009 sales. Inventory is also good now on the games Mario Kart and Wii Fit Plus after shortages, she said.

The Wii software-to-hardware tie ratio, meanwhile, increased to 10.10 games sold for each console year-to-date through April from 8 games per console in the same period of 2009, NOA said. In comparison, PS3’s tie ratio was down and the Xbox 360’s was up but not as significantly as Wii’s, she said. However, the Sony and Microsoft consoles have traditionally enjoyed stronger tie ratios than the Wii -- in part because Nintendo’s system is the only current-generation console that has come bundled with a game since launch.

DS handheld systems continue to see strong sales, including the new DSi XL, Dunaway said. “We've seen really good response to DSi XL, and both from sales and from satisfaction of consumers who really like the experience of the large screen,” she said. But she didn’t say how many XL units had been sold to date in the U.S. NOA and NPD don’t break out monthly DS sales by each SKU. A recent promotion giving consumers the ability to download Nintendo’s DSiWare game Photo Dojo for free “got a really strong response,” Dunaway said. But it wasn’t clear if that will help spur pay downloads of that title or other DSiWare games. Nintendo has been mum on specific DSiWare and WiiWare sales data. The total DS software-to-hardware tie ratio increased to 7.33 games per console sold for the first four months of 2010 from 6.42 games per console in the same period of 2009, NOA said.

Nintendo isn’t looking to compete with the Kindle and other e-readers through the recent introduction of the DS game 100 Classic Books, a collection of books that can be read on the handheld device (CED June 10 p7), Dunaway indicated. “It’s really not about trying to compete with any other specific device. It’s just trying to give people more options for things that they can do with their DS,” she said.

E3 Notebook

Next year’s E3 will be June 7-9, again at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Entertainment Software Association said. This week’s show had about 300 exhibitors and 45,600 attendees from 90 countries. Last year, there were 216 exhibitors and attendees came from 78 countries, ESA said. ESA President Michael Gallagher said early this week that attendance would be up 10 percent from last year at about 45,000 people (CED June 15 p3). Retail participation was up 20 percent from last year, said Graham Hopper, executive vice president and general manager, Disney Interactive Studios. The show “delivered above our expectations,” he said. “It’s back,” was the comment most frequently made about E3 by game industry executives who Consumer Electronics Daily interviewed at the show this week. Only two years ago, many game industry observers expressed concern that E3 would die after the show was scaled back for two consecutive years.

NPD is doing “a major (complete and massive in scale) overhaul of our IT architecture” that spokesman David Riley told us will allow the research company “to do much more with the data and research than ever before, and better prepare us for the changes that are taking place in the consumer retail/e-tail and digital markets.” The May sales data “will be released, but it is being delayed up to three weeks, though I know they're trying to deliver [it] sooner,” he said. Early this week at E3, Entertainment Software Association President Mike Gallagher complained that NPD sales data continues to not give a 100 percent accurate perception of what is happening in the U.S. because, among other reasons, its data doesn’t include downloads, which are growing significantly, he said (CED June 15 p2). Wal-Mart and some major retailers also don’t supply their sales data to NPD, he said. The U.S. game industry sorely needs a company to provide data that takes into account the whole picture, he said. “Somebody had better do it,” he said, leaving open the possibility that a trade group like his might have to do it. NPD’s overhaul of its data was not spurred by Gallagher’s comments, Riley said.

Rap music has largely been ignored in videogames until now, Def Jam Enterprises founder Russell Simmons said at a Konami news conference on Wednesday. His company’s Def Jam Interactive division developed the coming game Def Jam Rapstar with 4mm Games and Terminal Reality, and Konami will release it for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 this fall. The companies will “market the shit out of it,” Simmons said. Coming Konami games announced at the news conference included the new IP NeverDead, in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and Silent Hill 8 (working title), the latest entry in the company’s survival horror game series. It will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. Konami didn’t say when NeverDead will ship. The company also said Tobin Bell, star of the Saw horror film series, will again provide the voice of villain Jigsaw in Saw II: Flesh & Blood, shipping for the PS3 and 360 for Halloween, at about the same time as the seventh Saw movie is released theatrically in 3D. Konami will also release DanceMasters for Kinect for Xbox 360 this fall.

Tecmo Koei is developing four games for the Nintendo 3DS: Dead Or Alive 3D, Samurai Warriors 3D, Ninja Gaiden and Dynasty Warriors, it said. Details on the four titles including release dates will be available later, it said.